Environmental and Energy

Overview

Your resources power business and the economy. Our resourcefulness clears a path for your enterprise and ingenuity.

We work closely with in-house counsel, environmental managers and consultants to address a wide scope of environmental matters. Real estate developers and industrial clients rely on our attorneys in assessing and reclaiming contaminated properties and making them productive again. With our support, clients produce across-the-board wins that create economic growth while achieving environmentally-sound solutions. In those environmental matters that involve government enforcement action or private party litigation, clients count on us to develop and implement a litigation strategy that gives rise to a sound and cost-effective outcome.

We bring experience to all sectors of energy production, including renewables, in negotiation of complex transactions, securing financing, and achieving compliance with regulations. Our attorneys also advise on tax policies that encourage energy development.

Taylor English serves as outside general counsel to Pristine Sun, a major solar energy project developer operating across the United States. In this role, the firm provides legal advice and transactional services to all of the company’s projects, with the weight of those legal services geared towards renewable energy legal and regulatory issues.

Representation of private sector clients in acquisition of land use entitlements (e.g., general plan amendments, zoning amendments, conditional use permits) for commercial, residential, and natural resources development projects.

Lead attorney for remediation of Sacramento Railyards, a 243-acre brownfield in downtown Sacramento. Representation of PRPs before the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, California State Water Resources Control Board Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Representation of El Dorado County before the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) regarding formulation of Metropolitan Transportation Plan and Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program.

The IRS denied fuel excise tax credits for industrial vacuum loaders known as “Guzzlers” used by an industrial waste removal company.

The government recognized the hazards of litigating the case and agreed for purposes of this case that the equipment qualified as Off-Highway Vehicles engaged in an off-highway business use and, therefore, qualified for the fuel excise tax credit.

At the client’s request, we took over the defense of a large and hotly-contested patent infringement case brought by Nxegen LLC and Nxegen Holdings Inc. The patents involved systems and methods for remotely monitoring and adjusting energy usage. Facing a tight discovery schedule, we managed to produce, review and analyze a voluminous number of documents, take and defend approximately 30 depositions in a one-month period, amend the complaint to allege ...

Represented the plaintiff to a satisfactory resolution in companion litigation in Georgia and Colorado to enforce restrictive covenants and obtain protection against the misappropriation of trade secrets.

Represented Wellons Group, a manufacturer and operator of renewable energy co-generation systems using biomass as fuel. Wellons enters business relationships with industrial facilities with needs for steam and electricity usage whereby Wellons enters into leasing, financing, and power purchase agreements with those facility owners for purposes of Wellons’ establishment and operation of biomass-fuelled co-generation systems on the facility owner’s ...

Represented Pristine Sun, LLC as the borrower on a $3.2 million credit facility provided by Partners for Growth IV, LLC, as the lender. Acted as counsel for the borrower, reviewed and negotiated the loan agreement and numerous collateral agreements, issuing an opinion as counsel to the borrower.